1) Field of the Invention
The present invention is relates to a microscope apparatus, particularly, to a microscope apparatus for use in an industrial examination of semiconductor elements, such as semiconductor wafers, or liquid crystal elements, such as liquid crystal panels.
2) Prior Art Statement
In a process for producing semiconductor chips, recently, there is a tendency to use large wafers in order to increase a producing efficiency, because the larger the dimension of the semiconductor wafers, the more semiconductor chips can be produced. Wafers having a diameter of 6 inches are now mainly used in the semiconductor industry, however, 8 inch wafers or 10 inch wafers will certainly be widely used in the near future.
On the other hand, the applicable field of liquid crystal elements has increased in large display panels, which are used for word processors or televisions.
For the purpose of quality control of these elements, the microscope is used to examine these elements. When examining these large size elements with the aid of the microscope, the elements, i.e. the large semiconductor wafers or the large liquid crystal display panels, which have not been divided into each chip or each liquid crystal display element yet, should be held on a stage of the microscope. Therefore, it is required that the microscope apparatus comprises a large stage range; and thus an arm of the apparatus should have a large bent part in a stand portion thereof. In such microscope apparatuses, it is further required that the arm and a focusing adjustment of each apparatus should be very stiff, because the arm has a large bent part and the large and heavy specimen is held on the stage.
However, sizes and weights of these semiconductor wafers or liquid crystal panels are different according to manufacturer, and the microscope apparatuses for use in examining these wafers or panels also have different sizes and weights. On the other hand, mechanical dimension, stiffness, operational efficiency, etc. are different in each microscope. Therefore, it was strongly demanded to conduct the microscopic examination of the products in a stable manner without being influenced by the difference in size and weight of the products and mechanical dimension, stiffness, operational efficiency of the microscope apparatuses. However, there has to date not been a microscope meeting such requirements.